The Color Code of the Cocoa Farm

Unlike some plants where you see one tree or stem and fruits all ripped at the same time, the cocoa tree, just so you know, doesn't work that way.

The fruits don't mature at the same time. If you've ever walked through the cocoa farm before, you'll see different colour cocoa attached to the tree. Some are green and some a yellow.

That color difference is what tells the farmer when to start the harvesting work. You can think of it as a natural clock for the whole plantation.

Naturally they're green but then when you see that they have turned yellow, it means the very sweet white juice inside the pod is ready. The valuable cocoa part we need for sweet products is there.

But if the farmer makes the mistake of picking the green ones, the beans inside will be smaller than the yellow one's pod and the juice will be bitter.

But there's another colour and that's black. If the farmer waits for way too long and the pod turns black, it means it's spoiled and the seeds inside will start to grow roots. At that point, nobody can seel this at the market so nobody will buy it from the farmer.

So the timing must be so precise to get the best market price.

The people that'll harvest the pod use sharp cutlasses to remove the yellow pods very carefully and skillfully in a way that will affect the body of the Cocoa tree itself. The reason is that a simple mistake when they're cutting, can cause infections that can end up killing the tree later on.